That is one awkwardly placed power switch. Would it have been really hard to put it on the back of the camera?

SteampunkBanana
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2013-10-04T21:10:39Z —
#4

Their X10/100 series shot off the shelves like crazy, so I'm glad to see the stylings are moving along the rest of their lines.

Not so glad to see the higher prices come with it however, no matter how much I enjoy the double exposure. Guess I'll just stick with the Spectra line...

ouaisout
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2013-10-04T22:21:57Z —
#5

Agree with the placement of the power switch: very awkward. Interestingly, the new Polaroid 300 apes the Instax Mini's design, though the parts are plastic and the price is ~$70. The power switch is the lens telescope: pull it out, the camera warms up for a few seconds like the 600, a dial allows one to choose between 4 poorly, calibrated exposure settings (I admit I haven't yet experimented much with fooling the flash) & the camera is ready to shoot.

As a long-term Polaroid lover who became enamored of their essential singularity and fetishistic quality in reaction to the faked perfection of pixel swatches, at 6400%x, of the infintely-reproduceable Photoshop documents I was more frequently swimming in as part of my professional duties, I snatched up the 300 when I saw it. I was simply pleased that a consumer-grade instant camera was once again being produced, even if the market is driven by people attracted by the kitsch value (and who probably determined the frustratingly small business card-size of the 300 film.)

After a brief and bitter phase of experimentation with Impossible film (destiny lives in a name), I was happy to see instant cameras return. I will probably shell out $200 for this one and hope that higher-quality film in more formats will become increasingly available and less expensive.

One can dream. I still have a medical Polaroid (five separate boxed components, that, when assembled, are designed to shoot wounds) that I used to shoot macro & what are best described as strange images. My art work isn't calling for that right now, but I'd love to have the option of using it again. What a strange & marvelous beast it is.

shades
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2013-10-04T23:03:40Z —
#6

The power switch is in the same general area on the other instax minis, the camera (or the photo) appears to be on it's side? Yes it can still be a bit awkward, I have a 50s and numerous are the times I have turned it off instead of taking the photo, then turned it back on again and taken the photo.

The whole back of the camera opens to put the film in so I guess it had to go somewhere.

Interestingly, the new Polaroid 300 apes the Instax Mini's design, though the parts are plastic and the price is ~$70.

Considering the Polaroid name is being used on anything from crap-tablets to headphones, I'm pretty sure it's the same camera or base.

Actually I had a 'Polaroid Mio' that was a literally rebranded instax something.

SteampunkBanana
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2013-10-05T05:44:49Z —
#8

I'd urge you to give Impossible 600 color film a try again if you haven't used it in over a year. Their new color film is actually pretty good stuff.

They are coming out with new monochrome as well, probably around the holidays.

R4Nd4LL_b
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2013-10-05T07:48:45Z —
#9

The perfect Hipster camera!

Jon_Siegel
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2013-10-05T16:07:28Z —
#10

These little instant cameras are quite useful. I met a photographer a while back who travels to some pretty exotic places quite frequently. When he asks strangers for their portrait, in addition to using his DSLR, he takes a shot of them with one of these things and gives the print to them right there. I think it's a really nice exchange and have wanted one of these for a while to serve the same purpose.

ordinal
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2013-10-05T19:29:36Z —
#11

I have one. I had an old Mini 10 which was nice enough but noisy, limited in terms of functions and - importantly - looked quite Fisher-Price. (Newer Instaxes, like the Mini 7s, were even more childish in appearance.)

The look isn't a trivial thing. This is a social camera - it's best used in an environment where there are other people around, and you can share the pictures. If you don't want to take it out in a social environment because it looks childish, that's a design flaw. I've heard several people say "this is a really great idea but I don't want to buy one because it looks like a kid's toy".

It has a number of improvements over other Instaxes - it's smaller, lighter, can do double exposures, has more control over exposure, a B mode etc - but the main plus is that it looks many times cooler. People who previously would have been turned off by the kiddie look and marketing of Instax may now not be.

beschizza
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2013-10-09T20:37:52Z —
#12

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